Belial (A New, Psychological, Way to Play) by oculuswindow

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Belial (A New, Psychological, Way to Play)

By: oculuswindow
Last Updated: Aug 14, 2017
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Belial (A New, Psychological, Way to Play)

Lord of Lies - Melee Specialist

A stealthed summoner that infiltrates and unnerves the enemy while feeding off of his structures

Check out my concept for Mira Han, Leader of Mercenaries here


Check out my concept for Mekkatorque, Gnomish Inventor here


Forward


Hi all! The following is my concept for a Belial hero, inspired by my love
for specialists that offer unique ways to play, like Abathur, and that require
the enemy team to significantly adjust their gameplay. First, I outline Belial’s
strengths, weaknesses, and stats. Next, I detail my philosophy behind the concept,
broken down into three core principles: Demanding Map Awareness, Psychological
Warfare, and Balancing Power. Lastly, we get into the Abilities. Let me know what
you think of the concept, and what changes you’d make to improve it. I'm still
thinking about Talents, and will add them if there's enough interest.

Note: See abilities Lay Vessel, Petty Illusion, and Machinations to better understand the philosophy behind the hero.


Strengths

Weaknesses

  • Low health pool
  • Vulnerable to crowd control
  • Poor late-game
  • Poor team fight utility beyond causing disruption
  • Difficult to master structure investments
  • Readily detectible with Minimap

Stats

Health: 1365 (+4% per level)Regen: 4.85 (+4% per level)Attack Speed: 1.35 per secondAttack Damage: 96 (+4% per level)



Demanding Map Awareness

Psychological Warfare

Just as keen map awareness can shut down an opposing Abathur, so
too can it shut down an opposing Belial. In Abathur’s case,
taking note of locusts can easily reveal his location, and efforts
can be made to better defend the lane he is pressuring, or infiltrate
the fort/keep he’s hiding next to with a stealthed hero like Nova
and secure a kill. Belial too can be countered with careful
observation. Simply paying attention to the minimap and noting that
there is a friendly hero where they clearly shouldn’t be is a sign
to engage. Interestingly, while playing Abathur requires minimap
awareness, countering Belial requires the same. Obviously, this
makes Belial much less effective against accomplished players who
already have keen map awareness, but deadly against teams who
neglect him. May he be a lesson learned to the simple-minded.		 “Why are you just standing by the fort, Genji! Take objective!”
“No heals Uther? Why run, it was 2v1?” “4 BOT HELP”

These are examples of chat that a team getting pounded by Belial
can come to expect. Again, good map awareness can prevent much of
the salt, but just one or two successful Belial “tricks” can turn
the enemy team against themselves. Notice that Belial doesn’t
really engage in team fights; he has a few abilities that can help
him fight back in a pinch, but he has no CC, no healing, minimal
damage output, and he’s certainly not a tank. What he does have is
presence (and obviously siege). Belial distracts, frightens, and
outright unsettles the enemy team through a combination of
illusions and infiltrations.

Balancing Power

Similarly to Gul’dan, Belial has powerful abilities at his disposal, but at the cost of his team’s forts, keeps, and even core. Conjuring a few Snakemen while inside an enemy keep will be the quickest way to take it down, but how many should he unleash? Conjuring Snakemen costs Belial and his team valuable fort/keep health, as do a number of Belial’s more powerful abilities. How greedy should Belial be when infiltrating the enemy? One bad play could cost him as much as 21% of his hosting structure’s health. A good Belial player weighs their options carefully before making a move, and only invests as much as they can afford to lose.

Combat Trait

1
(D) Lay Vessel
Attach Belial's Vessel to a friendly Fort, Keep, or Core. Upon dying, Belial respawns at the Vessel after 15 seconds. Belial grants no experience upon dying, but costs his structure 15% of its maximum health. When Belial's Vessel is attached to a structure that is below 30% maximum health, Belial’s abilities are free, but deal 50% less damage. Belial cannot use his abilities without having an attached Vessel.

Note: For flavor, Belial's attached structure loses 1% of its maximum health per second while Belial is dead, with his Vessel seeping the life away from the structure.

Primary Abilities

1
(Q) Fly Swarms
Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Release a swarm of flies (6) that attack for 15 (+2% per level) damage. Flies last for 3 seconds.
2
(W) Indoctrinate Snakemen
Cost: 2% of maximum structure health.Charges: 3.Recharge Time: 8 seconds.
Convert an enemy minion into an allied Snakeman with 316 (+4% per level) Health that attacks for 47 (+4% per level) damage per second and lasts for 8 seconds. Snakemen target nearby enemy structures.
3
(E) Petty Illusion
Cooldown: 12 seconds.
Disguise yourself as the most distant enemy hero and increase your movement speed by 10%. Enemy structures and minions will not attack Belial while disguised. Belial is revealed upon taking damage, not by dealing damage. For the first 3 seconds after being revealed, Belial can pass through enemy structures.

Note: Disguise comes with enemy Battletag included :)

Heroic Abilities

1
(R) True Vision
Cost: 25% of maximum structure health.Cooldown: 100 seconds.
After channeling for 2 seconds, Belial teleports to his attached structure and replaces it with his true vision, temporarily gaining new Abilities, having 4696 (+4% per level) Health that burns away over 20 seconds. Belial returns to his normal form upon losing all Health in True Vision.

(Q) Fist Slam - Cooldown: 8 seconds. After 1.25 seconds, Belial slams down an arm onto a target area, dealing 315 (+4% per level) damage. Target area is marked with a green ring.

(W) Meteor Strike - Cooldown: 4 seconds. Call down a barrage of meteors dealing 85 (+4% per level) damage in the surrounding area. Lasts 5 seconds.

(E) Pestilence - Cooldown: 4 seconds. Breathe lightning toward the target area, burning enemies for 105 (+4% per level) damage per second. Lasts 2 seconds. Scorches the ground for an additional 2 seconds. Scorched ground deals 65 (+4% per level) damage per second.
2
(R) Machinations
Cost: 8% of maximum structure health.Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Disguise yourself as the nearest allied hero and summon illusions of the other 3 nearest allied heroes for 15 seconds. Belial and his illusions cannot use their Basic or Heroic Abilities. Enemy heroes cannot be killed by Belial or his illusions, and regain health lost to Belial and his illusions when Machinations ends. Belial returns to his normal form upon losing 2 illusions.

Note: Essentially, damage dealt by Belial and his illusions during Machinations is FAKE damage. Enemy players will see their health as less than what it truly is. Of course, they will not be as convinced once they hit 0 Health and are still alive. :)

Special Mount

1
(Z) Vessel Bound
Cooldown: 30 seconds.
After channeling for 2 seconds, Belial teleports to his attached structure.

Change Log

<1.1> Added Strengths, Weaknesses, Stats, and reformatted Intro. Moved Philosophy section to Intro.
<1.0> Original Release

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